Don't do the IRC thing. But I did a search for that file and it's not on my system. I think you're referring to a possible virus (it's the only info I could find on sound32.dll). I wonder if I could simply delete it. I find PC-Cillin to be quite effective as a Virus Scanner and I used to run Norton's but I found it was too controlling, a resource hog and also problematic. Correct me if I'm wrong. Always willing to learn and adapt.